Waiting for the Barbarians (poem)

Waiting for the Barbarians is a Greek poem by Constantine P. Cavafy, written in November 1898 and first published in 1904.[1] It depicts a day in an unnamed city-state where everything has come to a halt because the population is awaiting the arrival of "the barbarians", whom they plan to welcome.

Robert Pinsky has described it as "cunning" and "amusing".[4]Charles Simić has called it "an apt description of any state that needs enemies, real or imaginary, as a perpetual excuse",[1] while the Independent considered the poem's final line evocative of "the dangers implied by the end of the Cold War".[5]